We came to surrogacy the way so many families do: tired, hopeful, and stretched thin.
By the time we were ready to work with a surrogate, we had already been through round after round of fertility treatment. Our savings were nearly gone. So we did what made sense on paper. We chose a lower-cost path to try to make the journey possible.
We were told our surrogate had good medical clearance and had passed her psychological screening. We believed it. We had no reason not to, and no one encouraged us to look closer.
Later, we learned her medical clearance wasn't what we'd been told. There were other red flags, too: things that someone should have caught, and should have said out loud, before we were ever matched.
In the end, we lost our baby.
We can't change what happened to us. What we can change is how carefully the next match is made.
That's why we started Sojourn. Not to be the biggest agency, but to be the most careful one. We read every file. We name the red flags instead of smoothing them over. Every surrogate's medical records are reviewed by a registered nurse, every surrogate is evaluated by a licensed psychologist, and every household gets a background check, so no one has to take a match on faith. And because we know exactly what fertility treatment does to a family's budget, we keep our fee as low as we responsibly can.
This isn't only about protecting parents. A surrogate who isn't truly ready, medically or emotionally, is being put at risk, too. Careful screening protects her as much as it protects the baby and the family waiting for them.
We take on no more than twenty matches a year, so every family and every surrogate gets our full attention. When you call, you'll talk to us.
Naya, founder